Golden Week Pics: Two

One temple section at the Great Mosque, Xi'an

Classic doorway scene at Great Mosque. Nadeige, who has lived in Turkey, found this mosque to be rather "Chinesey" and not so "Mosquey"

Lunch on Muslim Street Market, Xi'an. That's mutton kebabs, mutton pita, and spiced rice cubes--yangroutwar, yangroumapiao, and shenme-shenme-dongxi (what-what-stuff)

Upstairs looking down on entrance to Xi'an's ancient wall.

On top of Old Smokey. I had a dream of scaling the wall and renting bikes to ride around. According to Lonely Planet this should have taken about 2 hours. When we finally found the entrance gate, we encountered a small brawl that a Chinese couple was having with the guards. For whatever reason, they demanded their money back. I was afraid they hadn't been able to climb to their hearts' content so was reluctant to buy entrance. But, after another couple who clearly understood the situation purchased tickets, we figured all must be well. Furthermore, we asked the guard and were assured "keyi" that the bikes were there and it wasn't too late to rent them. Unfortunately, the gate guard was either wrong or knowingly sold us tickets too late in the evening. Though disappointed, we walked along the wall for several hours. I was quite GLAD to find toilets on top (Nadeige had warned me against drinking so much water...but darn it if I wasn't thirsty!!)